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    Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw Faith and Rich Praise---12 Lessons from Israel's National Songbook
    Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw Faith and Rich Praise---12 Lessons from Israel's National Songbook
    Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw Faith and Rich Praise---12 Lessons from Israel's National Songbook
    Ebook181 pages2 hours

    Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw Faith and Rich Praise---12 Lessons from Israel's National Songbook

    By Tim Baker

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    About this ebook

    Let your students experience the raw faith and rich praise in Israel’s national songbook--the Psalms.The 12 sessions in Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms (the latest in Youth Specialties’ Creative Bible Lessons series) unwrap this Old Testament book so your students understand the passion, anguish, and joy expressed by David and the other Hebrew songwriters--and then learn to love the same God that the ancient Jews loved.The meetings (which are perfect for high schoolers and middle schoolers alike) are arranged around kinds of Psalms, including—Torah Psalms Seeing God at work in your personal historyComplaint Psalms When you’re attacked, is God always your bulletproof vest?Royal Psalms Jesus in the PsalmsTrust Psalms The God who really knows you, inside and outPenitential Psalms Shedding old skin--forgiveness and renewalThanksgiving Psalms Gratitude is next to godlinessOracle Psalms How to hear GodTaunt Psalms Battle lines are drawnAnd each session is loaded with options galore: clips from easy-to-get videos, games for mixing and games with a purpose, in-depth and ready-to-use questions for small-group discussions, original role plays, low-prep scripts, talks for you to give--activities to choose from that give your students not only a memorable time in youth group, but a taste of both the quiet trust and the boisterous celebration that the Psalms overflow with.Perfect for Sunday school teachers, youth workers, volunteers, CE directors, DREs, associate pastors--whoever wants to minister to real teenagers in a real world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateJan 4, 2011
    ISBN9780310854548
    Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw Faith and Rich Praise---12 Lessons from Israel's National Songbook
    Author

    Tim Baker

    Tim Baker is the author of numerous books, including Leave a Footprint - Change the World, Broken, and The Way I See It and the Award-winning Extreme Faith. He's the Managing Editor of The Journal of Student Ministries, and a regular columnist for Youthwalk Magazine. Tim lives in Longview, Texas, with his wife, Jacqui, and their three kids. Find out more about Tim at www.timbaker.cc.

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      Book preview

      Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms - Tim Baker

      Title Page with Zondervan logo

      ZONDERVAN

      Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms: Raw faith & rich praise—12 lessons from Israel’s national songbook

      Copyright © 2000 by Tim Baker

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

      ePub Edition July 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-85454-8

      Youth Specialties products, 300 S. Pierce St., El Cajon, California 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Baker, Tim, 1965-

      Creative Bible lessons in Psalms : raw faith & rich praise : 12 sessions from Israel’s national songbook / Tim Baker.

      p. cm.

      ISBN-10: 0-310-23178-7

      ISBN-13: 978-0-310-23178-3

      1. Bible. O.T. Psalms–Commentaries. 2. Bible. O.T. Psalms–Study and teaching. 3. Youth–Religious life. I. Title.

      BS1430.3 .B35 2000

      223’.2’00712–dc

      00-036792

      Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means–electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other–except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      Creative Team: Crystal Kirgiss, Lory Floyd, Rich Cairnes, Dave Urbanski, Holly Sharp, Mark Novelli, and David Conn

      Cover design by Holly Sharp

      Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

      Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

      EBOOK INSTRUCTIONS

      In this ebook edition, please use your device’s note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response Here]. Use your device’s highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      EBOOK INSTRUCTIONS

      INTRODUCTION           WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT, AND HOW TO USE IT

      SESSION 1                      WHAT’S A SELAH, AND IS IT LOADED?

      WHAT THE PSALMS ARE, WHERE THEY CAME FROM, AND HOW TO READ THEM FOR ALL THEY’RE WORTH

      SESSION 2                       TORAH (TEACHING) PSALMS

      (PSALM 105) SEEING GOD AT WORK IN YOUR PERSONAL HISTORY

      SESSION 3                       BLESSING PSALMS

      (PSALMS 1 AND 65) A DAILY DOSE OF BLESSINGS

      SESSION 4                       COMPLAINT PSALMS

      (PSALM 69) WHEN YOU’RE ATTACKED, IS GOD ALWAYS YOUR BULLETPROOF VEST?

      SESSION 5                       ROYAL PSALMS

      (PSALMS 2 AND 110) JESUS IN THE PSALMS

      SESSION 6                       TRUST PSALMS

      (PSALM 139) THE GOD WHO REALLY KNOWS YOU, INSIDE AND OUT

      SESSION 7                       PENITENTIAL PSALMS

      (PSALM 51) SHEDDING OLD SKIN—FORGIVENESS AND RENEWAL

      SESSION 8                       THANKSGIVING PSALMS

      (PSALM 118) GRATITUDE IS NEXT TO GODLINESS

      SESSION 9                       ORACLE PSALMS

      (PSALM 95) HOW TO HEAR GOD

      SESSION 10                     TAUNT PSALMS

      (PSALM 52) BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN

      SESSION 11                     COMPLAINT PSALMS REDUX

      (PSALM 31) THERE IS COMFORT EVEN FOR THE ABANDONED

      SESSION 12                     PILGRIM PSALMS (SONGS OF ASCENTS)

      (PSALM 122) WHY WE TAKE TIME OUT OF THE JOURNEY IN ORDER TO WORSHIP

      ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

      SPECIAL THANKS

      The Youth Specialties product development team—Tim, Vicki, Mary, Karla, Mark. You’re the absolute best to work with. Thanks for your patience and support. You’re truly wonderful people. (Psalm 146)

      The youth and college students at Hope Fellowship. You’re always so willing to try new and weird ideas. Thank you for your encouragement, enthusiasm, and trust. (Psalm 91)

      Nicole and Jessica. I hope someday you realize the mystical, wonderful, honest, raw, and saving message that’s in the psalms. You’re everything a dad could want in his kids. (Psalms 121 and 127)

      Jacqui. This book belongs to you. (Psalm 126:1-3)

      INTRODUCTION

      WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT, AND HOW TO USE IT

      Imagine that an accomplished artist, a painter, has requested your presence for an evening meal. The only thing is, you don’t know beans about art—and besides, your week is packed with a full schedule of lock-ins, small-group meetings, staff retreats. The artist’s request frustrates as much as flatters you, but at the urging of one of your former youth group students who’s an art major, you accept—with the request to get her an autograph.

      You show up early and discover that this famous artist has reserved an entire banquet hall just for the two of you. He’s been there for hours. On one side of the hall are tables filled with delicate hors d’oeuvres, succulent entrees, sculpted desserts. On the other side of the hall hang paintings that look hauntingly familiar…until you realize that they’re pictures of your life. There’s your childhood… your spouse…even a few portraits of kids in your youth group.

      There’s also a large, empty canvas on an easel. Fill your plate, then sit here, the artist says, gesturing to a chair. You obey. We’re not here to talk, he says. But go ahead and eat.

      For what seems like an hour, the painter sits and stares at you. Then he rises, approaches the easel, dips his hands into his paints, and begins daubing paint onto the canvas. But what starts as smeary colors begins to take forms and shapes that you recognize. Is that…it is Jason, the sophomore in your group who got caught last year smoking pot. You haven’t seen him since—well, for a long time. In fact, the artist’s way of capturing Jason’s emotions moves you, and you feel your eyes get wet. For Jason. Then you recognize Hannah…a rough start, but what a change you saw in her—a street kid whom you helped get into a halfway house and, finally, a home of her own.

      In this way the artist paints face after face, person after person. And then comes an image you recognize to be your own. He captures even the frustration you’ve held for so long. There’s a hint of joy in your painted expression, but only a hint. It’s been a while since you’ve felt much outright joy. But he captures you accurately.

      How did you know? you ask him. Then you see the scars on his wrists.

      The writers of the Psalms had experiences something like this. All of them sat down to canvases, and then watched God paint. What emerged on the canvases made them recall God’s acts. In glorious moments, when they actually saw God creating, they wrote it down. When they didn’t see God painting, they panicked. The writers of 150 songs collected in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, and called the Psalms used words, of course, not paint. But their portrayals are no less graphic or familiar. They’re vibrant pictures of struggling believers—paintings of people stretching to reach the Holy, verbal paint smears of people who felt alone, abused, and abandoned. And splashes of joy, thanksgiving, and praise.

      They’re pictures of us.

      The aim of Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms is to help your students understand the meaning and message that each psalm contains.

      And because you’ve got very real kids in very real situations—nothing theoretical or particularly typical about your youth group—a lot of options fill each lesson, options that let you combine, connect, or conclude however you want. Pick and choose the elements you want in a lesson.

      First comes an introduction to the kind of psalm that lesson is about—blessing psalms, complaint psalms, royal psalms, whatever.

      STEPPING BACK

      This section is generally for you: some big-picture background…historical, cultural, or theological insight…and maybe, if your students are budding Bible scholars, some details to work into your lesson.

      OPENER

      Actually, two openers are usually offered—one is generally more involved (meaning you’ll probably need to gather more supplies, copy some handouts, do three back flips, or arrange for some special something-or-other before the lesson), the other is simpler to prep for.

      Whichever option you choose, this first activity is key to getting students involved in the lesson. It’s a hook to get students into the psalm and into your subject.

      IN THE BOOK

      Here’s the Bible study part of the lesson.

      WHAT IT ALL MEANS

      Two or three options wait for you here: the typical entrées are an activity, a small-group discussion, and/or a straightforward talk you can give. Each option takes a little different tack on the psalm under study. (The talks can also be used as stand-alone devotionals.)

      CLOSING

      Like any effective closing, this section asks, What would this truth look like if I tried to make it work in my life? You’ll find creative discussion starters, group closing activities, personal commitment times—all geared to help your kids fit the truth of the psalm to their lives or discuss how their lives need to change in order to fit the truth.

      And finally, a few details before you take the plunge:

      • Yes, the lessons spell out just about everything for you, including what to say and when to say it. But don’t think that you can walk in cold to a classroom and teach an effective lesson without preparing. Of course, the more experienced a teacher or youth worker you are, the less you’ll need to prep. But do whatever prep you need. Read the listed psalms. Read through the lesson. Choose ahead of

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